OzCode v3.0: New Subscription Model

A few years ago, an idea was boiling in our heads:Imagine a company designed for one purpose – and one purpose only: to help developers be more productive.How time flies! Today we’re the proud inventors of a nifty debugging suite called OzCode, that makes developer’s lives a little easier.

We’re grateful to you, our loyal customers, for your patience during the last two versions. We listened carefully to your feedback from the front lines of programming. That helped us formulate our latest release: OzCode v3.0. We’ve baked in upgrades that give you phenomenal debugging power.

OzCode v3.0 will be released on March 7th, 2017, shipped simultaneously with Visual Studio 2017 RTM.

New Subscription Model

It’s important to us that OzCode remains affordable to everyone.

For v3.0 we’ve switched to a new subscription model. You can purchase your OzCode license on either an annual or a monthly basis. There are significant discounts available for volume purchases, so now’s the time to get your whole team on board.

Special Offer for existing OzCoders

Try v3.0 Early Access Preview, we know you’ll love it!

On March 7th 2017, v3.0 will be officially released and you’ll be able to upgrade your existing license to our new subscription model for six months at NO COST! If you’re not delighted, there’s no obligation to continue. The six-months FREE special offer expires June 15th, 2017.

When the free period ends, enjoy a 35% lifetime discount, with additional savings for group purchases reaching up to a 55% discount overall!

Bring the Gang

OzCode makes you a debugging wizard. With our awesome offer, you’ll be a popular Wizard too, leading the fight against bugs throughout your company.

Until June 15th 2017, the OzCode Special Offer extends to every member of your organization. Introduce others to our debugging tools and they get six months free of charge, including a 35% lifetime discount.

What if I prefer the Olden Days?

We’re sure once you try v3.0, you’ll never go back.

However, for those who like the good old fashioned version…existing v2.0 licensees can continue with their existing v2.0 license indefinitely. It’s yours to keep!

On Your Marks, Get Set, OzCode!

Upgrades would soon be available to redeem. For now, go ahead and try the Early Access Preview completely free. Come and get it!

See you in Land of Oz,

Omer Raviv, Founder and CTO

Still confused? Not a fan of words? Lucky for you, we made an infographic!

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If you choose to discontinue after a year, you will have to go back to the v2.0 license you bought. Having said that, you get the first 6 months for free without any obligation – if you choose to discontinue during this period, you will not be charged a penny!

Dra

I think you have come up with garbage with payment model

Jason Finch

If you’re going to follow the subscription model, take a look at Jetbrains, they allow you to maintain a fallback version if your subscription lapses based on the active version at the start of your sub. That seems more amicable especially as a personal licensee.

Thank you for the feedback. We’ve thought a lot about the issue that you raise. We definitely see the merit in JetBrain’s plan, although we see several problems in implementing it ourselves at our current stage. JetBrain’s Perpetual Fallback License means that once you stop paying, you revert back to the previous version (assuming you haven’t completed 12 consecutive months on the new). For us, as a young bootstrapped startup, the support overhead this entails is massive. We’d much rather use our resources to continue creating new, cutting edge features (such as https://blog.oz-code.com/enter-the-era-of-linq-debugging-with-the-ozcode-early-access-program/ ), and be able to create a sustainable business model where we give those features to our customers as soon as they’re tested and ready, rather than having to wait until one momentum occasion, once a year, when we release a major upgrade. We see the subscription model as the enablers that will allow us to keep doing what we’re doing, and hopefully give you a better and better debugging experience, year in year out.

AmericanHoser

> JetBrain’s Perpetual Fallback License means that once you stop paying, you revert back to the previous version (assuming you haven’t completed 12 consecutive months on the new).

No, you perpetually get to use the last version you paid for. Including point releases. Their licensing system can handle that distinction. There was a huge kerfluffle where they started out doing what you’re doing, and then realized from the huge outcry that people don’t like disappearing tools. So the final result was a perpetual license combined with an update subscription. People can download and use any version that was valid during their subscription.

> Where we give those features to our customers as soon as they’re tested and ready, rather than having to wait until one momentum occasion, once a year, when we release a major upgrade.

That’s the exact reason why JetBrains chose to go with the subscription model they did. They needed a more predictable income, and a smaller, more incremental release cycle. And they were still able to make subscriptions work with a perpetual license.

> the support overhead this entails is massive

Tie the support contract in with the subscription and the use of the latest supported version(s). People know if they stop paying, they stop receiving support. Insert a grace period if you like, but it’s not that hard to arrange the support contract. If your real problem is that your ops and licensing implementation doesn’t support this type of subscription/update information, that’s another story. But be honest about it. And work towards it.

I’m not sure if i’m going to bother upgrading, even with the “the extra 6 months FREE usage” offer for existing licensees. I have OzCode installed w/ VS2015, but I don’t use much of it beyond the debugging view of variables and conditions. It turns out there’s now another extension that does that, so my main usage is now covered. And the slowdown I get from using OzCode has already had me on the fence about turning it off, anyway.

I don’t like tool subscriptions, because companies never test how their software degrades when the license is over. I’ve had extension software throw up tons of inescapable message boxes or quit the main application. Sometimes it even happens with a valid license just because the license servers went down. Yeah, I could learn all the extra features and might find a few that are time savers. But I’m not sure it’s even worth trying out the new functionality and building a dependency on it if it could cripple my workflow one afternoon.

Best wishes, but I don’t think this is a rabbit hole I care to explore.

Klaxxon

While I don’t mind subscriptions per se (I am already subscribed to ReSharper and a few other “services”), I don’t appreciate the price point.

At least for me, OzCode is a minor convenience tool. It saves a few seconds and a few “brain hertz” here and there, it doesn’t drastically enhance my workflow.

I paid $40 for OzCode during the black friday sale, which was acceptable enough. But now, even as an existing customer with a “perpetual discount”, I am expected to pay $65 per year. That’s IIRC 60% of what I am paying for ReSharper, for comparison…for a tool that drastically improves productivity of almost every moment I am working with Visual Studio.

I also don’t appreciate that the $40 spent less than 4 months ago bought me less than 10 months of using the up-to-date version total.

Thank you for the sincere feedback. We have thought long and hard on how to structure the benefits. Ultimately – it is just really hard to please everybody. Those who bought OzCode v2.0 on the day it came out (July 20th 2015, same day as VS2015 release) will probably find the extra 6 months FREE usage of OzCode v3.0 a sweet boon, while those who purchased more recently will not. I hope you will give us a chance to prove ourselves and take the FREE 6 months (there is no obligation to continue), and see whether OzCode v3.0, with the new LINQ debugging capabilities saves you time. If it only saves you 10 minutes every week, then it has saved you more than 8 hours out of the year, and hopefully paid for its expense.

do0om

I am in the same situation as many others in this post: I am ok to have a subscription to OzCode but then the price is too high. I think you are missing a lot of customers.

Perpetual fallback is not the only solution.
For example, Visual studio has a community edition for small companies or individuals.
Unity has a free edition for companies with annual revenue < 100 000$.
Why don’t you follow their example and have a 40$/year (maybe with no support tickets) for companies < 100 000$ revenue? I think this would bring new customers.

Rob G

“Ultimately – it is just really hard to please everybody”.

People tend to post on the internet when they are really pleased or really dissatisfied. The comments on this thread is full of dissatisfied customers (and ex-customers). I fail to see how asking people to pay annually, then holding them to ransom for the next year’s fee to stop OzCode being taken away – all for MORE money than they paid for v2.0 – has actually pleased ANYONE!

Chris

Subscription is way overpriced.

$70-100 is ok for a permanant price for this tool.

For a yearly sub to this tool $30-40 range is the range I’d pay for something I use once or twice a week – if that.

Higher prices are fine, but reserved for tools that are used 90% of the time while coding (ie. Resharper).

Jason Morin

The cost of OzCode 2.0 was totally reasonable when my company paid for a one-time fee. However, I would not think they would be willing to pay a very similar fee for only 1 year of usage. This subscription model will raise the cost to users so much that I think they are overestimating what people are actually willing to pay for this tool.

Tomáš Dohnal

Is OzCode 2 compatible with VS2017?
– Installed from marketplace, but this is version 3 and it won’t get activated with existing license.

jsl

I’ve encountered the same issue. Performed a clean install of VS2017 this morning but OzCode 2 does no longer seems to be compatible with VS2017. Pity.

If the new subscription model receives a “fallback” license (similar to ReSharper et al), I am happy to jump on the OzCode 3 wagon – but based on the previous feedback, I won’t make that leap of faith and upgrade to V3. In general, I prefer a one-time fee (plus reasonable upgrade fees) over a subscription-based model, even if that one-time fee would have experienced an increase in comparison to the old pricing model.

ManWithAnOpinion

Not going to pay for a subscription, period. If I can’t use it with a one-time purchase, then I just won’t use it.

Zanpher

I have v2. I am also upgrading to VS2017 tonight. However, due the comments below, it looks like v2 is not compatible with VS2017… I cannot purchase v3 as it is not an option. Only subscribing is an option. I don’t like renting software, I like owning software (in the legal sense, not the mostly illegal EULA sense). (I might be rare).

If v3 comes out with a purchase option, count me interested. If not, I’m just another former customer that has to find an alternative.

abdu2010

I was one of the early adapters of Ozcode when it was BugAid. I even paid $50 for the first beta version some years ago. Who pays for a beta software from an unknown company!? I do if I believe in the product and the vision. I am grateful and appreciate the free upgrades since then.

However I am disappointed with this new subscription model. In general I don’t like software which stops working when I stop paying. I like OzCode because I am a sucker for productivity tools even if I don’t use them often enough, and Ozcode does help sometimes. After 6 months I will decide if Ozcode warrants the $65/year with my usage pattern. I don’t make a living by using it like digital artists who pay Adobe $10/month for using Photoshop and Lightroom. For them it’s totally worth it. I don’t think Ozcode is in the same category. But I understand every for-profit company needs to make money in some fashion. Not everyone has to agree to the method.

BTW, the v2.0 fallback verbiage on the site needs more transparency if v2.0 doesn’t work in VS 2017. Ozcode knows that eventually most developers will be migrating to VS 2017 and newer versions. So using v2.0 for a long time won’t be an option anymore unless the developer stays with VS 2015.

Matt Summers

Aww.

I don’t use the tool enough to justify the cost, but I understand that you guys need to target the developers who can.

But 2.0 not working in 2017 is a bitter disappointment. I’m no longer a paying customer, so it’s not like I have any leverage in this discussion. Shame

Ben Holtzman

If I’m going to depend on a software tool I won’t risk the possibility that it will stop working if I can’t come up with the subscription fee when the subscription term is over. I agree with Jason Finch. The Jetbrains model is an acceptable compromise for me. I can help support the expense of continued efforts to improve OzCode in addition to not having to worry about getting locked out of the tools I depend on if I don’t have the funds needed in the future. The risk is too great for me to use OzCode with the current subscription based licensing. Sorry.

Lucero

In January I considered buying a license but from the LINQ feature announcement I got the impression that this might go into a new major version and because I did not find any information on whether there is an update grace period (such as other companies do, e.g. when a new major version comes within the first three months or so you are eligible to use it) I held back on the purchase.

Now I see that there is no longer a permanent license option AND the price for the yearly subscription is even significantly higher than the previous permanent license cost (175$ now vs. 145$ previously). Sorry, that’s just too much money for the benefits it brings… OzCode focuses on a very tiny part of the daily work (debugging .NET code) where tools like R# cover much more (full stack – not only .NET but also JS, TS, CSS, HTML etc.) and really boost productivity.

So I’m glad I did not buy in January, it would have been a huge disappointment to have paid money for a version which is outdated after few weeks and not running in the new VS version…

Richard Moss

I thought I’d echo some of the comments below. Sorry guys, but you’re going to loose me as a customer. I (with gritted teeth) “subscribe” to Resharper only because of the perpetual fallback. I happily purchase NCrunch each year(ish), because I know, if for some reason I can’t upgrade there and then, my existing version will still work until I do get around to renewing.

It is very disingenuous to state that “you can keep using version 2 forever” when version 2 (apparently) doesn’t work with VS2017. I love OzCode, but I’m not going to stick with VS2015 just to use my currently licensed version, and I’m not going to subscribe to software that stops working the second I stop paying for it.

Subscription licenses only benefit yourself, not your loyal end users. Regretfully, that seems to be the way the world is working now, but I will continue to protest such anti-consumer practices and will vote with my wallet and use alternatives. I really don’t object to paying for (fairly priced) new major versions, when I have the right to use them as long as please.

ai_enabled

It’s shame that we bought OzCode 2.0 just a few months ago, now switched to VS2017 (as requirement for our projects) and cannot use 2.0 anymore and forced to subscribe on 3.0… which is also turns out to be much more expensive… so even with free 6 months we have got a tool for less than 1 year.
Personally I didn’t found any noticeable improvements with debugging (but I’m a very experienced developer) and even was very distracted by “jumping lines” issue (because of OzCode HUD appearing over current line of code during debugging). So I disabled this feature…

This really sucks … bought v2.0 on 28th Nov 2016, and now 9th Mar 2017, i.e. not quite 4 months, I’ve got to upgrade because v2 doesn’t work with VS2017 … but worse, there isn’t an upgrade, it’s a subscription $65/year. I can live with subscriptions, e.g. I have one for Resharper, but the price for OzCode is way to high

Sarit Tamir

Hi Steve, thank you for the feedback. We have a dedicated solution for for customers who purchased OzCode in the last couple of months. Please send me an email to: saritt@oz-code.com and I believe that I can help

Steve Culshaw

Sarit,

got the dedicated solution … 12 months free subscription 🙁

As far as I’m concerned, not a solution

Kiran Singh Randhawa

The solution is 12 months membership for OzCode 3… frankly I didn’t buy in to your new subscription plan. You might make a little money on licenses but it’s going to be offset against upset customers and bad publicity. I wouldn’t mind paying a one off fee for Oz Code 3 but now you’ve made your product less accessible.

Zanpher

Exactly this! I purchased november 2016 as well. There is NO upgrade path, unfortunately. So the 1 year support, etc? Gone. Sucks that they were selling 4 month licenses.

Steve Culshaw

Sympathies

Onno Willems

I also bought a 2.0 license on sale not too long ago. Although I think OzCode is cool and the tool is very nice, it’s not something I will want to regularly for in the form of a subscription. I am also a bit gutted that the license I bought will be useless once I upgrade to Visual Studio 2017. I did not know that at time of buying and it would have made me think again.

Richard Moss

(Second attempt at posting, first one seemed to have been removed – can’t really see why given it echos sentiments expressed in multiple other comments. Of course, if this post gets moderated too then you truly have lost me as a customer)

I thought I’d echo some of the comments below. Sorry guys, but you’re going to loose me as a customer. I (with gritted teeth) “subscribe” to Resharper only because of the perpetual fallback. I happily purchase NCrunch each year, because I know, if for some reason I can’t upgrade there and then, my existing version will still work.

It is very disingenuous to state that “you can keep using v2 forever” when v2 (apparently) doesn’t work with VS2017. I love OzCode, but I’m not going to stick with VS2015 to use my currently licensed version, and I’m not going to subscribe to software that stops working the second I stop paying for it.

Subscription licenses only benefit yourself, not your loyal end users. Regretfully, that seems to be the way the world is working now, but I will continue to protest such anti-consumer practices and will vote with my wallet. I really don’t object to paying for new major versions, when I have the right to use them as long as please.

Hi Richard. I’m not sure where your previous comment went (disqus sometimes has issues with false-positive spam filtering), but I want to be absolutely clear when I say that we did not remove it, just as we have not removed any other comment. We value and respect your sincere feedback, and value you as a customer, and we would never do that.

We released version 2.0 on July 20th 2015, the same day VS2015 came out, and it supports VS2010-VS2015. We’ve never made the promise at the time that it will support newer versions of Visual Studio as they come out, and I don’t know of any other vendor that does, so we don’t feel we’re being disingenuous here.

In either case, you are welcome to try and use the new 3.0 with VS2017 support for 6 months absolutely FREE – there is no obligation to continue past the free period. I truly believe the subscription model will be a win for our customers and us both. Instead of us being incentivized to hold back on releasing the cool new features we’re working on to a once-a-year occasion where we release the new major version, and having all of our new features only available in an EAP channel – the new model will enable us to bring stable features to the stable channel many times a year. It also means that we can be a lot more lean, because we do not have to support previous versions of OzCode – everybody is using the latest and greatest, and when we ship out a new feature and a new bug fix – all of our customers get it at once. That means we can focus our resources on creating better features and more value. To be completely transparent – as a young, bootstrapped startup, we feel that the new leanness that the subscription model affords us is crucial to our success in finding a sustainable business model where we can continue cranking out new features and better tools year in, year out, and hopefully make your dev life just a little bit easier.

Richard Moss

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

I’m probably still going to disagree with you on the disambiguation – other companies also don’t leave you in the lurch if you purchase a product within a few months prior to a major new version being released as seems to be the theme of some of the comments in this thread. However, I do concede the point that you never did claim you’d support newer versions and I would expect to pay for said support.

Clearly the subscription model works for the companies that have made the switch, otherwise they wouldn’t be doing it. No doubt you have done the research that says it will work for you too, and that’s fine. As the old adage goes though, you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs. In this case, the eggs are going to be the (few?) customers like myself who absolutely point blank refuse to rent software.

I genuinely do not understand the mindset of all these companies who claim a subscription is a win for a customer. How is it a benefit to me to a) pay substantially more per year b) loose the ability to use the software as soon as I stop paying. This isn’t consumer content like streaming video or music. It makes no sense to me. Not supporting older versions also makes sense too, but not combine the two at the same time – that clearly has irritated some of your following. (Although given the pages and pages of hate when Jetbrains did it, and the distinct lack here, maybe people are starting to accept the new order)

Just as your subscription model is a change, so to is the development landscape. There’s other choices – I also use VSCode for some projects, and even Xamarin for a bit of cross platform work, which further reduces the value proposition of subscribing to OzCode.

I still may about face and subscribe with more gritted teeth but at this point in time I would think it is unlikely. I’d rather go without than have a forced disconnect. Or stick with VS2015 and my v2 license of course. Or maybe I’ll take a look at the trial version and be swayed. Who knows? I do know that I’ll miss Reveal, Search and Compare though – so in the end that might do the swaying.

Regardless of my ultimate choice, I still (well, that was part of the original “lost” comment) wish you the best of luck – after all, OzCode is a pretty unique product and one of the best aids I’ve ever used, I’m also still astounded that Microsoft hasn’t borrowed some of your ideas to bake into the software. We’ll just have to disagree over licensing models!

Ben Chartrand

I’ve almost bought the latest OzCode three times but each time I’ve stopped. The problems are:
1) I hate the thought of you (or whatever third party you are using) storing my CC details. I like to avoid it, especially if it’s not a regularly recurring charge (meaning: monthly charges are ok but not once every year)
2) I’d rather not get charged 6 months later. Just my luck my CC number is changed or, six months from now, I see this expense and I’m like “WTF is this on my bill?!?”. Point is: I’d rather pay for it now and get it for 18 months instead of a free 6 months then good for a year
3) I don’t feel comfortable with signing up for a subscription. I’m just a lone dev.
4) Even if there is no 6 months free, I don’t like the thought of automatically getting charged again for a desktop tool. It’s not like I’m paying for a service.

I like OzCode. It often feels like I live in debug so anything that helps me in debug is welcome. I don’t mind the price either. I’d rather just pay for it and, if/when you come out with a new major version, to pay for that.

Dave Robinson

No. Just no. I’ll stay on 2 and forgo 3. At least I still have 2 with my current install of VS2015. It’s bad enough that I bought VS 2013 Professional, and they didn’t offer an upgrade price to 2015 (and 2017), but now you want me to pay MORE? And next year, MORE? This is really disappointing as I thought the product was getting there. (Look at MZ-Tools – I have purchased every version since 3.0, and will purchase the next version. Your decision is very disappointing)

Dave Robinson

No. Just no. I cannot see a compelling reason for me to cough up for a subscription based model. You need to drop the price to something around $20 per year, and that might entice me to reconsider. Hey, you never know – at that price point you could end up with far more subscribers.

Brien King

Was prepared to purchase OzCode, but then I found out that it will stop working if you do not renew your subscription. I have no problem with subscription based licenses but I do not support that.

I’ll be looking for alternatives, or be forced to write a few of them myself.

Chris

If the intent is to have the product stop functioning at the end of the subscription period then this is a deal breaker. I’d rather pay more and still have access but having those services removed is totally unacceptable. I’ll go back to using rocks before using any such product with this kind of policy.

DudeSerius

First, I’m going to start off and say that I completely understand where so many customers below are coming from. That said, I’ve used this product since beta and, as I touted to a close friend of mine, this is by far one of the most productive and useful for-pay tools I own and take advantage of beyond Visual Studio and Office. I have been screwed over by Resharper and while I enjoy and appreciate a lot of what Telerik provides, NUnit and Kendo was about the only thing from Telerik that I didn’t have to spend hours configuring and got more back than what I put in. Caution as there’s a lot to read here, but I’ve got a lot to say, this isn’t Twitter, and sometimes (like now) it’s worth your time to see things from the other side of the table as per the old adage…”to know what it’s like to walk a mile in their shoes”.

Resharper messed up my VS install so many times corrupting the VS user config and even project files.

Telerik, while amazingly beneficial and time-saving, was also extremely convoluted and required countless hours to remove features I did not want; but didn’t know what to call said features so I could find and disable them AND trying to turn several features back on that I had unintentionally deactivated. Telerik’s suite also overwrote/overrided MANY keyboard-shortcuts that had been in VS for years and multiple iterations – keys I had stared at from a printed sheet at my desk to learn for several years – keyboard is faster than a mouse in VS once you use it long enough to never leave your KB (think VIM: but BETTER).

Because of all my woes, I’ve gotten used to using a select few free and payed extensions/add-ons, avoided the suites and stuck with singular purposed tools. When I was made aware of this excellent debugging parade in beta stages, I jumped – after-all, more time was spent debugging code-bases that were built by developers years before me than was spent actually resolving the issue. I’ve enjoyed the countless hours saved, nights that I got to have dinner with my wife instead of falling into bed after she had already gone to sleep. I’ve worked at places that believed you were responsible for finishing what you started at the expense of your personal time and this tool made it possible to do things that I had only dreamed of doing – debugging LINQ “queries” was most likely my first or second “where’s the shopping cart so I can throw my money at it” moments with software that was an extension/add-on.

I’ve shared with my closes developer friends that this not only makes my short list, it’s in the top 3 for utilities I’d throw money at. Back to the beginning, however, I can understand current customers’ “torch and pitchforks” behavior. I have been burned by companies that changed models to pay-as-you-go and it reminds me of the initial ‘Golden’ years of the internet. Paying for internet by the kb, mb, and hours on it (thanks AOL). When Reflector was ripped from our hands, still warm to the touch for example, and now Office 365 and Adobe Photoshop/Dreamweaver’s subscription model makes one-time purchase of their non-subscription model software out of reach for the developers like me who make a living working by oneself helping dreams come true of small companies (and individuals who dare to dream) rather than for a corporate mogul/tycoon who would rather have your soul for dinner.

That said, despite the angst and the very strong dislike of subscription services due to past mishaps and the fact that every dime counts and sometimes you can’t upgrade your software for several years, I’m going to give y’all a chance. I acknowledge not only the time saved and the amazing software you share with us for a price that puts food on your tables and shelter over your heads, but also the humbleness of your hardworking individuals and the amazing responses I, and those I’ve worked with in the past, have experienced from y’all. Talking about giving away free money to those who helped you go from beta to full-on-prod, I received a 50% coupon to upgrade to v1: and that was just the first time you shared with me your desire to truly help those single developers that would not only excel with your help but also give back and help give your company the fuel, ie money, that was necessary to continue with your dream.

For those that have dared to read all I have had to say, kudos – it is a lot to take in and time spent that you cannot get back – however, I’m getting to the best part: I decided one day recently that I would give y’all a chance should the momentous occasion arise. Shortly after my hand was forced and I had to relinquish my position at a ‘stable-white-collar-job’ as an experienced Sr Software Dev/Engineer to take on the hardest task of my life: stay at home and raise my young toddler while my wife traded places with me and become the sole breadwinner, I had received an email that said I could upgrade from 1.0 to 2.0 for FREE if I were to offer my personal rating of the software, if I were to share not only what I liked, but also anything and everything that I felt it could do better, I took the chance. I wanted then, and still do, to both continue sharing with the open source community AND continue my trade and supporting my wife with the financial challenges that lay ahead – this was my chance to FINALLY spend the time needed to get my dream company off of the ground – finally time to do it after so many failed attempts…

Anyways, I manage to find a few hours real late one night, while our child was fast asleep, and share my completely honest and humble opinion. I let them know how much this tool meant to me and how much it had helped. I also mentioned a few week spots and places that had room for improvement based on my extensive use of beta and v1. They took my survey and my precious time spent on the answers, read through the extensive information I shared late into that morning before the sun arose, and replied the at 9:38 THE VERY NEXT MORNING! I’ve paid a LOT more than that for software and not received replies to surveys, let alone a tactful reply to a support request within 6 hours of my sending it…but they did. And that wasn’t all…

The individual involved, Cosmo Irimia, had not only read through the exhaustively detailed report but shared it with a developer there who had suggested I look into a couple v2 features that would help with some of the problem areas that I felt could use some love. I am still working on a reply because we had just moved back home and my PC was packed up and my only dev machine, a tablet, was fried. I still aim to make a reply once I’ve played with v3 on VS 2017. That sales manager, Cosmo, and the developer Cosmo talked with, BOTH earned my respect that day, both for the quick, humble response AND the strong desire to help and learn from their customers. This company has done quite a bit to say thanks to all those who have helped pave the road ahead of them so that their product can shine AND help fulfill the dreams of those graced by the fruitful labor in the form of such a great software.

I don’t expect anyone who is complaining or raising their “torches and pitchforks” and to read this – that is fine – but for those that haven’t yet raised their arms in angst, I hope that at least one reads to the end. This company and the people inside it need to feed their own, I’m sure that some even have kids of their own. They have homes to pay mortgages on; shelter to maintain; rent, bills, and utilities to pay, food to put on the table, and loved ones to take care of. They, too, need the opportunities, that we afford ourselves, and the best and easiest way to do that is to sell this amazing dream-solution carried forth in the medium of software to the people that benefit from it the most. Let’s be fair and acknowledge that those who work in white-collar are very indulged and can agree that money is made far beyond what is JUST ENOUGH to get by while others do not have even that. I know that many of you are like me and do not have stable or guaranteed-static income to put towards something like this. As they said, “it is very hard to please everybody”, and this does not fall on deaf ears. That said, they are offering a very tantalizing offer to help those in our shoes – and at a cost to them over the life of our subscription to them.

As has been mentioned, you can always go forth without the software, keep the 2.0 for yourself with Visual Studio 2015, or even go out and make your very own – but at the cost of paying for a startup on your very own dime and without the experience and massive man-powered-tested reliability of this existing wheel of software – without the manpower behind updating and testing new features, resolving new bugs and making a product that has been through MULTIPLE iterations of Visual Studio – did I mention that it has been available on Day 1 for VS 2015 AND VS 2017 (not to mention during the RC releases of both)?

Again, they’ve done something amazing that anyone can take or leave – just remember that if they’ve had a positive impact on your professional lives, it may just very well be worth paying back a little and giving them a chance to earn your trust once more. I, for one, am willing to give them a chance because they have given me so many chances to produce and fix both my software and software that was dropped on my lap – all the while giving me back precious time that is something worth more than money right now with a small child and wife at home and the opportunity to pay back to the community. I recognize that they dream big and are trying to provide a service that gives you back time AND helps you dream big in your own way. Check out the price-plans they have for the Open-Source devs who are giving back to the community as I type this. Check out the holes they are cutting out in their pockets by cutting bigger deals for those who have been around longer than just yesterday, the free time they are giving you to try to earn your trust and your hard-earned money, and the fact that they will be supporting their product AND their customers because we aren’t just numbers to them – we are hard-working developers who also have families and dreams: Big Dreams.

I really do understand that most companies are going to the re-occurring revenue. To us users, it comes to the matter of cost vs benefit.
* I pay Jetbrains. I use their products on a daily base. I am not happy that they went to a mostly subscription base; however, they do give a permanent license, with it, to the previous year.
* I pay Microsoft. I use their products on a daily base. Subscription sucks; but, it is cheap enough to justify the cost. Plus it comes with 1 terabyte of storage.
* I’ve stopped paying Adobe. As a hobbist and when I only use Photoshop maybe 3 times a year, I can not justify that cost.

I was going to pay for an upgrade to Version 3. Your product is a nice debugger when I make applications for myself. However, I don’t do this often. I wouldn’t mind paying a bit more for a permanent license. And yes, that maybe equivalent to 2 years of updates. A permanent license unlike subscription, means, that I still have a working product now, 2 years, or 5 years from now. I have to say “No” to your product.

TWeller

So, there’s really no perpetual license anymore? I like OzCode and I even bought it although my 1 man company has a turnover of <10k€/y. Any kind of monthly or annual fee without getting a useable product is not acceptable. It seems you just lost a customer.

Uri Goldstein

I’ve been an OzCode fan and dare I say supporter from early days. I own a v2.0 license.

I wouldn’t mind the transition to a subscription model too much had the price not been so high. But more importantly, I am disappointed as a customer to see the software I bought being abandoned by its makers so quickly. OzCode v2.0 is not available for VS2017 which will soon make my investment in it worthless.

I will not be buying into v3.0 as long as I see the team’s focus is tilted so strongly in favor of making more money at the expense of respecting and appreciating paying customers.

Winkyboy

I am not interested in a subscription plan and v2 provides all I need. Just sharing my opinion.

Rob G

You changed to a subscription model: and you haven’t released a new version for 7 months! The VSIX file for v3.1.0.3913 contains assemblies dated 7th June 2017.

In contrast, ReSharper has released as v2017.3 (with quite a few updates throughout the year), and quite frankly they are going to start stealing your business. Their initial release of the debugging features is already very good, and if JetBrains do what they are good at (making things better), OzCode is going to become obsolete.

I paid for the subscription for OzCode v3.0 – and like others have said, ReSharper is 90% of your day, and OzCode is 5% (if that). The debugging features in ReSharper v2017.3 cost me no extra money.

I don’t think I will be renewing my subscription when it lapses. I am sorry, but I am seeing no return on investment. It is almost as if you have stopped developing OzCode!

Rob G

Also, the ReSharper updates aren’t just bug fixes: they are new features (and GOOD new features). A subscription model where constant updates and new features are delivered on a consistent basis is what works for me. Purchasing a “subscription” for something that has never been updated since I purchased it is basically me paying for it as a single version, and then you taking it off me in 6 months when it expires.

You need to rethink your pricing, your release model, and your feature set. Also, a plan of what you are working on and upcoming features (if any!) wouldn’t go amiss. This would at least give people reason to continue handing their money over to you.

Thank you for the feedback, Rob. We’ve released the v3.5 EAP in September, and getting ready to ship the RTM for that (you can see a couple of the new features that will be shipped in v3.5 such as the new Conditional Search and completely revamped Search around the 7-8 minute mark of our V3.5 webinar ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXcc7-hgVvc ). While it’s true that we’ve been pretty quiet since v3.0 was released, the reason for that is that we’ve been in stealth mode around OzCode v4.0 which is a revolutionary new change, which represents much, much more than “a few cool new features” which we have been working on the past year and a half. The first video with details on what’s coming in v4.0 is coming out early Feb on the Visual Studio ToolBox show on Channel9 (we will post the link on our blog and social media once it’s available). I hope that once you see v4, you will realize nothing can be further for the truth. The subscription model has allowed us to take our OzCode to a much more ambitious place – and we’ve been investing more R&D efforts than we ever have before. In the future, once we get the “big, revolutionary” features out of the way, we do plan to have a more consistent flow of “small, helpful” features on a more regular cadence.

Rob G

Hi Omer,

Thank you for taking the time to respond. It is much appreciated!

Wow – I REALLY like the conditional search feature!!! That is going to come in very handy.

Is the video containing the new features for v4.0 ready yet, by any chance? I am very excited to see what you guys have been up to in your stealth mode.

I am now leaning towards renewing my subscription when it expires in July. 🙂